Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of controlling discharge of printed sheets as a sheet bundle, a sheet discharge control apparatus, and a storage medium, and more particularly to a method of controlling discharge of a set desired number of printed sheets as a sheet bundle, a sheet discharge control apparatus, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
There has been known a sheet discharge control system that conveys a plurality of printed sheets, which have been printed by an MFP as a sheet discharge control apparatus, from the MFP to a stacker apparatus as a sheet discharge unit, and stores the conveyed sheets in the stacker apparatus. In this sheet discharge control system, the MFP performs print processing on the number of sheets to be printed, which is set by a user, and conveys the set number of printed sheets to the stacker apparatus, wherein the conveyed printed sheets are stored. Here, a technique for acquiring printed sheets conveyed from the MFP to the stacker apparatus as a bundle of sheets of a desired sheet count has been proposed e.g. in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-277339. In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-277339, the MFP divides print processing to be performed on the total number of sheets to be printed, based on the desired sheet count which is set by the user, and whenever execution of each divided print processing operation is completed, the stacker apparatus discharges the printed sheets of the desired sheet count as a sheet bundle. This enables the user to acquire the printed sheets of the desired sheet count as a sheet bundle.
However, in the sheet discharge control system described above, there is a case where the user cannot acquire the printed sheets of the desired sheet count as a sheet bundle. For example, if the number of printed sheets stored in the stacker apparatus does not reach the desired sheet count of printed sheets for a print processing operation, the printed sheets stored in the stacker apparatus remains in the stacker apparatus without being discharged from the stacker apparatus. However, thereafter in this state, if a new print processing operation is executed based on the setting of another desired sheet count which is set by the user, this brings about a situation in which two types of printed sheets, which have been printed by two print processing operations different from each other, are mixed in the stacker apparatus. As a result, in either of the two print processing operations, the user cannot acquire the printed sheets of a desired sheet count as a sheet bundle.